


this is just a test.

by Satan In Purple (purple_satan)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artificial Intellegence, F/M, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, established relationship- kylux, girl in a box trope, mentions of a D/S relationship but nothing explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-17 00:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13647945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_satan/pseuds/Satan%20In%20Purple
Summary: Hux orders Ben a girl in a box for their five-year anniversary.





	this is just a test.

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wanted to write Reylux AIs and the [girl in a box](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GirlInABox) trope. This was fun.
> 
> Many thanks to [Aicosu](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Aicosu/pseuds/Aicosu%22) for helping me turn this from crack!fic to something I took extremely seriously by the end of writing it.

  

 A girl in a box.

Hux has ordered him a _fucking girl in a box._

After five years of being together, Ben thought he had his boyfriend pegged pretty well. What they would do, what he would lavish him with today. Four years of the same thing like clockwork. Armitage Hux, a military man with three tours of duty under his belt, was not prone to deviance from his precious routines. He liked to wake up in the morning, a thirty-minute jog then shower. Clothing already chosen the night before, crisply pressed collared shirts and slacks followed by coffee and the morning paper.

Ben knew the routine after a week of being with him.

So when he woke this morning from their bed with its precisely folded hospital corners, Ben imagined he’d dress them both up nice. Enjoy his coffee and paper. Take them somewhere expensive to go sightseeing and then dinner. If he was feeling especially good, drink a little too much and have Ben drive them home. End the night with mind-blowing anniversary sex.

You know, normal things.

Ben is perfectly fine with normal. If normal is what Hux wants day in and day out, holidays and anniversaries, he signed up for it. After five years with the man he really doesn't have the right to complain.

But this?

This is completely unexpected.

Extremely _not_ normal.

Ben swallows, words catching in his throat now dry.

“You bought me a _girl_ for our anniversary?”

“Us, Ben. I bought _us_ a gift for our anniversary,” Hux replies as though its the most natural thing in the world, buying your significant other a person.

“A girl.” Ben repeats himself and Hux looks at him like he’s suddenly gone stupid, malfunctioned.

Like his brains have spilled out his ear and onto the wool rug.

Turning back to the box, he presses his fingers against the glass. His breath fogs the pane separating himself from the tiny girl curled inside a metal shell, surrounded by the quiet hum of machinery. Even though IVs and wires mar her sunkissed skin, its still the skin of someone young, free of blemishes. A few shades darker than his, but her hair is lighter. Long eyelashes like his. The color of her eyes still a mystery, but if he knows Hux they're either hazel or brown. Frail, delicate bones. Decidedly un-machinelike.

She's beautiful. _Exquisite._  

Exactly the type of girl Hux would have brought home in the past, after coming home from war.

That is if he hadn't met Ben.

_How is she not human?  he wonders._

The stark red emblem of First Order Industries is emblemized on the user manual Hux cautiously thumbs through. Reading glasses perched precariously on his nose, he’s all business. As though reading about their newest— _Acquisition_?—will answer all of their questions. Ben watches as Hux’s pale eyes scan the words on the page before he flips it to the next, muttering under his breath and chewing on the end of a pen he’s using to underline occasional bits of text.

“Is there a problem, Ben?” He asks, finally looking up to Ben still staring at him. “You’re the one always complaining about neither of us having time to do housework, to make meals anymore. I thought the house could use a feminine touch.”

“You hire a maid for that, Ar—”

Hux scoffs, sipping at the crystal tumbler of whiskey at his side. “I bring home too many trade secrets to hire someone, you know that.”

“You don’t _buy_ people!”

“Being fair, she’s not exactly—”

“Is this legal?”

“What?—Don’t be ridiculous.”

Getting on his hands and knees, Ben peers closer into the box to watch the rise and fall of girl’s chest. The shallow, metered breaths. A strange feeling of familiarity churning in his gut the more he looks at her, at this girl with her bits of wire and tubing, curled up on his living room floor. She looks just like a living person. They can't  _keep_ basically a living person, can they? What if she doesn't want to be there? What if she doesn't want to stay with them? What if—

Hux stands from the chair, apparently satisfied with what he read from the text. Resting a hand on Ben’s shoulder, he squeezes it briefly before letting go.

“What do we do with her?” Ben asks, quietly. As though she can hear them discussing her future for her. “When she’s not working.”

“Whatever we want, I suppose,” the other man replies matter-of-factly, dangling the manual in front of his face. “A few stipulations here and there because of the lease. We can’t permanently alter or damage her, for example.”

“Jesus— _Fuck!”_   Ben knocks the manual out of Hux’s hands, causing it to skitter across the living room flooring. “The first thing your mind goes to is that? Damages?”

“She was quite expensive.”

_“Damages.”_

He shakes his head, feeling Hux scratching blunt nails through his hair to his scalp soothingly. Casually grabbing a fistful of Ben’s dark hair, he stares down and tugs so that Ben meets his flinty eyes.

“I’ve had enough of your ungratefulness on the matter. Thank daddy properly for the gift, Ben.”

“Thank you,” Ben grits out, between his teeth. He tacks on the _Daddy_ at the last second, turning his upper body so that he can grasp for the shiny belt buckle at eye level but Hux bats his hands away. Has eyes only for the box in front of them, now that he’s gotten Ben’s attention.

“We should wake her up. It’s only meant to be temporary.”

Hux lets go of his hair, gracefully dropping to his knees beside Ben on the floor. Hunting around the side of the box, he finds a panel he pries off with his fingers, switches hidden underneath the metal. Slipping his hand deftly into the pocket of his slacks he produces a chipped card he presses into Ben’s hand hard enough he feels the plastic edges bite into his palm.

“You do the honors.”

“Do I have to?”

_“Yes.”_

Ben holds the card in his hand. 

He could easily crush it in his fist in petty defiance. But that wouldn’t change the fact that the girl isn’t going anywhere. Would only serve to make Hux mad, the dismissal of such an elaborate and exquisite gift. Would probably ruin their day enough he wouldn't even be punished in a way he'd enjoy.

Hux is right.

They do need more help around the house. Its immaculately clean, but it would give them more time to spend together. More time for Ben to devote to his hobbies while Hux is away. Someone else to talk to while Hux is on business trips and can't answer calls, even if its this waif of a girl.

It isn’t as though she's going to replace him.

Making his decision, he reaches out with the card to its reader slot.

Hux nods his head, silent praise. Guides him, hand over Ben’s as the card goes in smoothly.

There's a hiss of air then silence. It's not nearly as dramatic as he was expecting. The box slowly opens, releasing a harsh, medicinal smell into the room and they both watch with rapt eyes the rise and fall of the girl’s chest gradually speed up, shallow breaths becoming more pronounced.

She’s _there_.

Actually there in front of them to touch.

Without the glass between them, Ben can see the small freckles dotting her shoulders and arms. The exact curve of her cheekbones and nose. Her eyelids flutter, pink lips move minutely and déjà vu washes over him in a chilly wave of nausea as he freezes.

The girl still does not wake.

“—and bring me the manual, love. We have to unhook her—Ben!” Hux snaps at him, pulling him out of a daze. He’s already detaching tubing and wires, hands full of machinery. Piece by piece, cautiously wrapping things into compact bundles.

“She’ll wake up after a bit. Best not scare her more than we have to.”

“We don’t have to turn her on or something?” Ben asks sourly, handing him the manual. Hux opens it to a page in the middle. The left corner dogeared, text underlined in blue ballpoint pen.

“What? No, that’s—Why would we?—”

He furrows his brow at Ben, looking down at the diagrams.

“No no no, Hux," he protests. "I can’t do this—She—”

"For the love of God, Ben. It’s fine, _really._ ”

“It’s not that, its—”

"She’s entirely ethical to own."

Ben leaves the room, head spinning and gut churning. He quickly dashes to their study, eyes scanning the shelves of the bookcases until his eyes rest on a photo album the size of a heay tome and nearly as old. Blue and gold, gilt edges, the pages long since yellowed due to age. Thumbing through the old crumbling photographs, he scans the pages until his eyes rest on a sepia-toned portrait of a lady. Walking back into the living room, he shoves it under Hux’s nose. They both stop momentarily, peering at the subject of the photo.

A woman. Tiny, if her sour-faced husband is a point of comparison. Dressed expensively and bejeweled, hands clasped demurely in her lap. Big doe eyes staring at the camera with a mysterious smile.

Closing the heavy cover, the gold leaf letters of _Skywalker_ missing in places shine back at them in the hazy glow of the lamplight and the grin forming on Hux’s face doesn’t stop until his pink lips are stretched into a smile that's more mischievous than comforting.

“Well, now you’ve convinced me she belongs here, Benjamin.”

Ben sputters. “She looks just like my grandmother, Hux!”

"She does bear a rather striking resemblance to—But, no—"  
  
"That can't be a coincidence!"

"Well, she's definitely not—"

Behind them, they hear faint rustling. The sound of joints popping from disuse as the third occupant of the room lets out a long, decidedly unladylike, yawn.

Ben whips around, startled at the sound. He drops the heavy album on his foot and begins cursing in every language he knows. The girl sits up and stretches her arms above her head and Hux laughs and laughs, eye flitting from Ben's face growing red with embarrassment at her naked breasts and the girl’s bewildered face.

Blinking her eyes, she stares at them both curiously.

“Hello. I’m...Rey?”

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked what you read, follow me on tumblr @ [purple-satan-fic](http://purple-satan-fic.tumblr.com) or [satan-in-purple](http://satan-in-purple.tumblr.com), my main/mostly star wars specific blog!
> 
> also many thanks to [reyluxnotbang](http://reyluxnotbang.tumblr.com) for the exchange! hopefully there will be more in the future!


End file.
